Arcane thesis choices

[questionmark693]

So I'm making a wizard, and I'm hoping for him to be one big 'no' button. I'm looking through metamagic abuse, and of course arcane thesis showed up. I'm looking around for choices, and several spells are appealing. Enervation, because negative levels are great. Shivering Touch, because dex damage is a beautiful thing. Ray of stupidity looks good too, because monsters tend to have lower int scores, so I can just put them into comas. What are the playground's thoughts?

[Summerstorm]

Well, i will be boring here (and ineffective) but:

Wings of Flurry

You can never pile enough caster levels on this uncapped area force damage

It gets funny if you are very force-specced dragon-blooded sorcerer (I built a Dragonwrought Kobold who introduces himself as a Force-Dragon)

Dragon Blooded +1CL
Thesis +2 CL
Invisible Needle +1 CL
Argent Savant +1 Damage/Die
pile on metamagics...
Yay, forcedamage.

[questionmark693]

How would I cast that as a wizard though?

[Summerstorm]

Wizard... just ignore me, i am sleepy and stressed. Maybe i should read carefully before writing crap?

Ah well... Then i can't name a single spell. Should be something which isn't resisted well or universally applicable, something which gets good things out of CL and something about mid-level (So you can stack more of your cheap metamagic on it) Hm, Enervation seems a good choice if you take the ray-metamagics, i guess.

[Phelix-Mu]

Alright, so there will doubtless be a bunch of good suggestions, but let me postulate about some more general analysis.

As you go up in level, the best stuff you have will occupy your highest level slots, either being a spell of that level, or something lower metamagicked up. Certain levels have benchmark spells that are probably going to soak slots; a 4th level slot for polymorph, until you get access to shapechange, wall of force, some kind of teleport effect (the most-used ones are 4th-7th or so). So, there are levels where there is already good competition for stuff. Because it's going to be -1 off of every metamagic used on the selected spell, you really want to select something lower level that will regularly get more than one metamagic applied to it (value for money).

I'd say ray of stupidity is a winning pick. Also the similar ray of clumsiness. Touch of idiocy is also strong, especially if you invest in a better delivery method. These kind of spells are good because:

1.) Nonlethal: this automatically increases their usefulness from the typical murderface combat encounter to things like dispute mediation, escape plans (knocking someone out is quiet), subterfuge (make a person stupid in order to make them gullible, make them clumsy to stop them from being able to stop you, etc), and on and on.

2.) Fell x/that ilk: Some metamagic feats can add lethality to spells, and rather efficiently so. While you aren't a spontaneous caster, you can expand the usefulness of normally nonlethal spells by making them lethal or tacking on status effects, and so forth.

3.) Low-level: By higher levels, you will be able to stack 2-3 metamagics on these kind of spells with no problem, vastly increasing their usefulness. Combine with a carefully chosen selection of metamagic wands, and you can quickly develop quite an arsenal off of otherwise innocuous spells.

[Arael666]

I'm a big fan of orb of force, most mailman builds are built around this spell too.

[Arc_knight25]

For low levels Magic Missle, Cloud of knives has a nifty build as well.

Enervation is another good one.

May I suggest Incantrix PrC for decreasing Metamagic costs more.

Other feat options are:
Easy Metamagic from Dragon #325
Residual Magic CM

These are just some options I'm sure people will have more.

[Rijan_Sai]

I'm fond of Silent Image, but then I'm fond of the Killer Gnome (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5638.0), too...

[Jeff the Green]

Sonic snap's not bad, or acid splash if you're more worried about SR or silence than miss chance, acid resistance, or an attack roll.

With the right metamagic you can give them a negative level, a -4 penalty to Strength, a -2 penalty on will saves, and make them deaf, shaken, and entangled. No save, no attack roll. From a third-level slot. If you also add on on a couple +0 metamagics like Invisible you can bring that down to 0th level again.

'Course, this does eat up like seven feats.

[Anthrowhale]

Arcane Thesis[Arcane Fusion] is quite versatile. To get on a wizard, you need to spend two level on wyrm wizard (and lose a caster level) for access.

Barring that, Arcane Thesis[Hail of Stone] is an L1 area effect damaging spell with no save, no SR, no immunity, and no attack roll. The drawback is costing 5gp/casting which seems acceptable.

[fishyfishyfishy]

I recently gave my players hell with some Warforged Warmages with Fell Drain, Fell Weaken, Fell Frighten, and Arcane Thesis (Magic Missile). 3rd level spell for a no save negative level, -4 Strength, and Shaken on the whole party. They were not happy.

[Segev]

Launch Bolt is a 0th-level spell in the Spell Compendium which launches a crossbow bolt as if it were from a light crossbow (d8 damage, 80 ft. range increment, etc.).

With Arcane Thesis, every metamagic you add to it is one level less than it otherwise would be.

Reach Spell, Chain Spell. Now, it launches one bolt per caster level. This takes a 2nd level spell slot with Arcane Thesis. (Also, your CL is two higher than normal, so you get +2 bolts.)

Caster level d8 damage on a ranged attack is not bad for a second level spell.